After seeing the Documentary today…………
The veil was pulled back from a memory long ago obscured by hard living and weed smoke.
Sometime in the spring of ’69, Steve got the first album. Whilst walking home from the bus, I spy with me little eye a strange car in front of my house. A guy is sitting in it (It’s still a bit brisk out), windows cracked with foreign scents emanating. I already smelled weed before, most notably in Steve’s house and on his clothes. As I get near, Steve pulls in the driveway and holds up this album picture to the guy in the street. I know the shot well–the explosion of the Hindenburg zeppelin in New Jersey. Hmmmm……that’s the cover? There’s something challenging about this band. I drift over, trying to be cool. The kid gets out of the car and joins me. I tell him to let his car windows down, cuz my father is a real asshole. He complies. I give Steve doe eyes……….”Can I hear it??? Pul—eeze??” [Picture SpongeBob begging……..]
He considers things. It appears there’s going to be a ‘listening party’ where Steve will blast the album to a group on the front porch. Since nothing will probably be inhaled, I’m allowed to linger, if I keep quiet.
With the start of Good Times, we exchange looks like “uh-oh.” Another car pulls up, two people spill out. “Did we miss anything?” We all say, “SHHHH.” Then the acoustic “Baby, I’m Gonna Leave You”–someone says ‘Oh Fuck, why acoustic?’ Steve smiles, says merely: “Wait for it.”
When ‘Dazed and Confused’ ends, there’s silence. I remember someone saying “Holy Mother of God” (first time I ever heard that.) Steve goes inside to turn it over. One of the kids that arrived late says “Shit, man, this changes everything.” Another says, “I need some fucking weed.”
I crack up involuntarily. My laughter triggers guffaws, but no one lights anything. Damn.
Later, I’m alone in my room, trying to cope with the album. Well, here’s something the parents can never hear. I bought it a few days later, played it to death, since the top 40 AM stations were clueless. This set up the ‘push/pull’ of my listening through high school: Fun pop/R&B vs. ‘Underground’ hard rock.
Try this on for size: